Page 22 of Till Death

“Well, fine.” I glared at the microphone. “If you don’t want to work, then I’ll just do it myself. You’re useless.”

Things must not be operating correctly with the veil down. It made sense.

I squared my shoulders and hardened everything I could harden. Time to buckle up the big girl boots and do what I’d set out to do in the first place. Search the underworld for my favorite soul and find a way to keep the demons back.

My chest tightened painfully with the thought. When Cole’s face popped into my mind, I cringed, remembering the way his brow had thickened, how his eyes turned a deep and burning red when the demon began to take over entirely. He’d already been close to the edge, ready to lose himself at any moment, and he’d taken the final leap—for me.

I never wanted him to be in that kind of situation. Not to save me.

Talk about guilt.

I felt likeIwas the one suffocating.

So, where did I go from here? It would be a complete and utter waste of time to personally search Hell, and that was if I managed to avoid the Halflings and their masters altogether.

A thought blinked like a lightbulb in my mind. Jeez, why hadn’t I thought of it before? Cole’s father. That’s where he’d be, if anywhere.

I turned back to the microphone and grasped the handle once more, saying the one name I never thought I would. “Amon.”

I shivered at the thought of being face-to-face with the sin demon. Yet again, nothing happened.

No spinning. No wind.

“Are you kidding?” I asked the microphone, voice low, as though it would somehow answer me. “I know he’s in Hell. He hasn’t gotten out yet. The only sin demon in Fairport was Wrath and I took care of him. Real good.”

No matter how many times I yelled out the name, along with a few other choice curses, the room remained the same.

“Fine, I’ll have to do this the old-fashioned way.” And I really didn’t want to.

More blood. More gore. More violence until I got what I wanted.

I pushed out the door and let it close behind me with another screech, heading off into the darkness. The worst part about this whole thing? Going alone. I’d had my fair share of fights with demons in this very hallway, but I’d always had someone with me.

I pressed my lips together. Different doors dotted the walls of the never-ending hallway. This whole place was nothing but a prison for souls spending their afterlife paying for what they did when they were alive. Cole might have done some terrible things, but he had a good heart.

He didn’t deserve this fate, an inescapable one because of the circumstances of his birth. He’d never asked a demon to impregnate his mother.

A shudder ran through me and I forced my feet one in front of the other, my footsteps echoing. It’s fine, I told myself. Just another stroll toward the empty halls of the worst place in the universe. Nothing I couldn’t handle.

I kept up the mantra for a good bit until the sound of my footsteps stopped and the reverberating scrapes, nails against flooring, crept closer. Gaining speed. Accompanied by a chorus of screeches and roars getting closer. I knew what was coming.

Crap. Dammit anyway.

The Halflings had found me and brought trouble with them.

Whirling around, I called for my sword, indulging in a split-second of panic when she didn’t automatically form in my open hand.

Horror had my insides shaking as time ticked by. The countdown had begun. Finally, Bertha fully materialized just in time for a herd of Halflings to thunder into view.

How were there even this many still here? Weren’t they all up in the mortal realm by now?

I tensed, widening my stance in anticipation for the tidal wave of shit about to crash down on my head. No way out but forward.Just another day in paradise, except paradise was filled with monsters. And my job?

Yeah.

The little hallway still wasn’t wide enough for me to properly kick ass, but did I have a choice? Nope. Not one little bit. I refused to go down without a fight because I’d come this far, and everyone back home counted on me to keep the swarm contained.

“You guys picked a really bad time to mess with me,” I shouted above the din. It didn’t stop them. “I hope you’re ready for the final death. It won’t be pretty, I promise you.”

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